Ninja Scroll is breathtaking and not easily forgotten

DVD review: Ninja Scroll is a beautiful and gruesome Anime classic, in spite of its unpalatable sexual content

Ninja Scroll still has the power to shock (Picture: File)

This 1993 swords ’n’ sorcery Japanese anime is held as one of the classics of the genre, alongside the likes of Akira – its influence has reverberated down the decades and, even approaching 20 years old, it still has the power to shock.

A slacker-ronin, Jubei, a scheming, sarky, Yoda-like government spy called Dakuan and proud, inexplicably toxic female ninja Kagero (in bum-skimming kimono, natch) form an uneasy alliance to defeat some Very Bad Ninjas with supernatural powers who are embroiled in a complicated plot to take over Japan.

The cel animation depiction of writer/director Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s fantastical Tokugawa period Japan is often breathtakingly beautiful; the violence is without exception wince-inducingly gruesome; and the sexual content is extremely unpalatable (in fact, a genuinely upsetting attempted rape of Kagero was cut when Ninja Scroll was first released here).

But the fight scenes are masterfully choreographed – and it’s certainly a film that, once seen, is not swiftly forgotten.